Hi!
I think there might be some fun design space in making White Robed, Red Robed, and Black Robed Wizards of High Sorcery.
Wizard Archetypes have features at 2nd, 6th, 10th, and 14th.
At 2nd level, I was thinking of giving them some Lunar Wizardry powers, based on the phases of your patron moon. Since it's still during one of your "apprentice" levels, I figure this is pre-Test.
At 6th level, you would take the Test of High Sorcery, and if you survive, you would gain a cool class feature. I'm thinking it might be a gift from the Towers of High Sorcery, like Raistlin's Staff of the Magius. Or maybe something more general, like a way to boost your Arcane Focus.
At 10th and 14th levels, maybe a way to improve your Arcane Focus? Or a way to benefit from your patron moon?
But I haven't really done anything Dragonlancey in a while. I just read Dragons of the Dwarven Depths, but it wasn't very inspiring, nor did it have a lot of material about the Moons of Magic.
Anyone know anything about Solinari, Lunitari, and Nuitari? Or anything about how the magic itself is different between White, Red, and Black Robed Wizards? And preferably not about the schools of magic.
I'm almost leaning towards White Robes with some bardic influence, Red Robes with some sorcery influence, and Black Robes with some warlock influence.
Any ideas?
As far as magic being different between the different colors of robes, I don't think there was any difference. They could all cast the same spells. Just their philosophy differed. I know in 3rd edition, they had the different robes be better at certain schools of magic compared to the others, but spells weren't locked depending on the color of your robe.
I don't know how it was in 2nd edition (I really should look into that, then), so can't really comment on that.
As for knowledge about the moon gods... I know they were considered siblings, and they had no clerics, as their only "worshippers" were the wizards of High Sorcery, and they brought about the Test due to the rampaging spellcasters of old running amok around Ansalon. Also, only those devoted to Nuitari can see the Black Moon, except for the Night of the Eye, where all 3 moons are aligned into an eyeball.
I haven't done any Dragonlance research or reading lately. I did read the Chronicles trilogy, as well as the "lost chronicles" I think they are called (the ones that detail what happened between the originals, where they show how they got the Hammer of Kharas and got through the dwarven kingdom, instead of just glossing over that) last year. I should look through my old Dragonlance AD&D books to see if that has any details.
In 2nd Edition, each colored robe had access to different schools of magic.
For example, White Robes had access to Abjuration, Charm, Conjuration, Divination, Enchantment, and Evocation.
Red Robes could use Alteration, Conjuration, Divination, Illusion, Invocation, Phantasm, and Summoning.
Black Robes got Charm, Divination, Enchantment, Illusion, Necromantic, Phantasm, and Summoning.
This was back in the day, when 2nd Edition had the following schools of magic: Conjuration/Summoning, Invocation/Evocation, Enchantment/Charm, Alteration, Necromantic, Divination, Illusion/Phantasms, and Abjuration.
But even then, a lot of what the rulebooks state contradict stuff the characters did in the novels. For example,
And all the bigwigs could teleport like crazy.
He was just casting shadow evocation. Yup.
He's so tricksy. I never trusted him.
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
a lot of what the rulebooks state contradict stuff the characters did in the novels. For example, ** spoiler omitted **
And all the bigwigs could teleport like crazy.
That was because Raistlin and all of the other mages of Dragonlance were designed around 1st edition AD&D rules, and so when 2nd edition came around, the devs of the time thought it would be cool to make use of the new rules for specialist mages and thus re-designed how magic in Krynn worked.
But to address your question, you should get a copy of the d20 Dragonlance book: Towers of High Sorcery; that book, as well as most of the other d20 (3.5) Dragonlance books are available on PDF over at dndclassics.com.
|
In theory, their powers waxed and waned with the moons themselves. I'm not sure if you actually want to deal with that at all, though, it's either random or a bunch of book keeping.
It's possible there's better information in the novels, but the RPG books never did a great job of separating the schools.
I'm almost leaning towards White Robes with some bardic influence, Red Robes with some sorcery influence, and Black Robes with some warlock influence.
This sounds like a pretty fun way to distinguish them. I'd consider giving the White some cleric influence, but that might just be Final Fantasy talking.
Cheers!
Landon
|
I once read Dragons of Autumm Twilight, Winter Night and Spring Dawning, and I also read Dragons of Summer Flame (which I believe to be the last book chronologically)
However, it was a long time since I read those books, and I am not really an expert on 5th Edition D&D, so I am afraid I won't be of much help. I have however read some of R. D. Henham's Dragon Codex books; while they are targeted toward younger audiences, they are still heavily based on the Dragonlance setting (you can tell because they frequently mention Takhisis, Paladine, creatures such as Draconians and cities such as Palanthas) and may provide some useful and/or interesting material.
Instead of tracking lunar cycles, how about a series of checks?
Like each day, you would make an Intelligence (Arcana) check (or Nature or History or Religion, whatever is determined is more appropriate for lunar magic) for Solinari, Lunitari, and Nuitari.
White Robes would have advantage on Solinari rolls, but disadvantage on Nuitari rolls.
Black Robes would have advantage on Nuitari rolls, but disadvantage on Solinari rolls.
DC 25 = Full Moon
DC 20 = Waxing Moon
DC 15 = Waning Moon
DC 15 > New Moon
If you get 2 of the same, it's a conjunction.
If you get 3 of the same, it's a grand conjunction.
Now I just need to come up with what you get....
I'm thinking some kind of pool of dice, that can be used on Saving Throws, Attack Rolls, and/or Ability checks. The number you get is based on your rolls and the type of dice are based on Conjunctions.
Like 0 dice for New Moon
1 for Waning Moon
2 for Waxing Moon
3 for Full Moon.
Die Types are....
1d4 for single moon
1d8 for conjunction
1d12 for grand conjunction
I would probably give them something "domain-like" to replace their school powers at levels 1 and 8. White Moon, Red Moon, and Black Moon domains. White, probably something party-buffing. Red, probably something self-buffing. Black, probably something de-buffing or curse-like. And "domain-like" spells to replace the bonus school spells.
White ally-buffing, Red self-buffing, and Black de-buffing might even work for 5th Edition.... Hmmmmm......
|
Instead of tracking lunar cycles, how about a series of checks?
Like each day, you would make an Intelligence (Arcana) check (or Nature or History or Religion, whatever is determined is more appropriate for lunar magic) for Solinari, Lunitari, and Nuitari.
White Robes would have advantage on Solinari rolls, but disadvantage on Nuitari rolls.
Black Robes would have advantage on Nuitari rolls, but disadvantage on Solinari rolls.
DC 25 = Full Moon
DC 20 = Waxing Moon
DC 15 = Waning Moon
DC 15 > New MoonIf you get 2 of the same, it's a conjunction.
If you get 3 of the same, it's a grand conjunction.Now I just need to come up with what you get....
I'm thinking some kind of pool of dice, that can be used on Saving Throws, Attack Rolls, and/or Ability checks. The number you get is based on your rolls and the type of dice are based on Conjunctions.
Like 0 dice for New Moon
1 for Waning Moon
2 for Waxing Moon
3 for Full Moon.Die Types are....
1d4 for single moon
1d8 for conjunction
1d12 for grand conjunction
The Battlemaster path for fighters uses a certain number of dice to power abilities, perhaps you could work in something like that where you use the dice to power Metamagic-y type spells and the amount of dice you get and some of the metamagics are determined by your robe color and the phases of the moons. I do like the variable dice though....must look into this.
Just a thought.Anywho, didn't they put out an article with a playable minotaur race that was geared after the Dragonlance one?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Yeah, I think they did. I think a minotaur Black-Robed Wizard of High Sorcery would be a lot of fun.
I also like the metamagic idea!!!!! It would be the high sorcery in the wizard! Such a great idea! And I like the battle master dice idea too.
Something to think about...
:-D
Moon Cycles
http://www.dlnexus.com/fan/rules/11899.aspx
Thanks.
I have the old 2nd Edition Dragonlance Advanced sourcebook, and it has similar tables (except Lunitari has 8 days and Nuitari has 28 days), but keeping track of the moon chart is a bit of a hassle. Especially if you play the occasional game and there are large chunks of time (both IRL and in the game) between each session.
You could roll on the chart each session, but that seems a bit blah to me for some reason.
I kind of like the d20 check. It reminds me of the diviner Portent ability, and it can be combined with Battlemaster-style dice and Sorcerer-style metamagic.